GameStop CFO and executive vice president Jim Bell has resigned and will depart both roles on March 26, 2021. Bell only joined GameStop as CFO and EVP back in June 2019.
His departure was announced a brief press release published today alongside the note that current SVP and chief accounting officer Diana Jajeh will serve as interim CFO if a permanent hire has not been made by that March 26 deadline.
No reason for Bell's departure is given in the announcement. Bell's short stay at GameStop was an eventful one. The press release notes that Bell saw the company through much of the COVID-19 pandemic, a particularly tough time for brick-and-mortar retailers but especially so for GameStop as the company was struggling before the pandemic set in.
Bell's tenure at the company saw him in an executive role throughout much of in GameStop's ongoing transformation plan, during which the company has closed hundreds of stores, pushed to clear out inventory, and took other severe actions to reduce its costs.
It also saw him heading up GameStop's finances during a period where it became the target of a stock market war between short sellers and stock market savvy Reddit users, a battle that would eventually push GameStop's stock price up over $340 before it leveled back out closer to $50 per share.